Chapter 7 - The Second Car
Evelyn answered on speaker.
Nobody spoke.
Then we heard a child humming.
Lily’s favorite song.
I ran downstairs.
Lily was with Marcus.
Safe.
The humming continued through Evelyn’s phone.
A recording.
Then a man spoke.
“Bring the ledger.”
Victor Shaw.
At least I assumed it was.
“Where?” I demanded.
“You’ll receive instructions.”
“You want the ledger? Fine. You deal with me.”
A soft laugh.
“You still think this is your family.”
The line disconnected.
I looked at Evelyn.
“Two cars.”
She sat down.
“When I took Lily to Daniel, sometimes another vehicle followed us.”
“Whose?”
“I never knew.”
“You knew enough to make Lily hide.”
“I thought if they couldn’t confirm she was inside—”
“You thought wrong.”
She nodded.
No defense.
That surprised me.
“I’m sorry.”
I wanted anger.
Instead, I saw a frightened grandmother who had made terrible decisions because fear had become normal.
“Tell me everything about Victor.”
“He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t threaten directly. He makes people understand what he can take.”
“Sarah?”
“He wanted control over her inheritance.”
“And Lily?”
“Leverage.”
Daniel entered.
“I found the second car.”
Security footage from nearby businesses showed a dark blue Mercedes following Evelyn on four separate trips.
Registered to a corporate leasing company.
Marcus traced payments.
Richard Vale.
Again.
But one transaction occurred after Richard was arrested.
Someone else controlled the account.
We set a trap.
I instructed Marcus to leak that the ledger had been moved to my Manhattan office.
Only four people received the false information.
Daniel.
Evelyn.
Marcus.
And Sarah, through a secure message.
At midnight, someone broke into the office.
Security cameras captured a masked figure.
The intruder ignored money.
Computers.
Art.
He went directly to my private safe.
Marcus’s team intercepted him.
It was my driver.
Peter.
The man who had driven my family for nine years.
Under questioning, he admitted Richard paid him.
But Richard took orders from someone else.
“Victor?” I asked.
Peter shook his head.
“I never met him.”
“Then how were orders delivered?”
“Calls.”
“Voice?”
“Distorted.”
“Payments?”
“Cash.”
Then Peter said something important.
“The person knew your house.”
“How well?”
“Everything.”
“Schedules?”
“Yes.”
“Security?”
“Yes.”
“Family routines?”
He nodded.
An insider.
Another one.
I thought of Sarah’s warning.
Don’t trust anyone who knew your father.
The list was long.
The next morning, Lily came into my study.
“Daddy?”
I closed the ledger.
“Hey.”
“Are you mad at Grandma?”
“Yes.”
She considered that.
“Are you mad at Mommy?”
“Yes.”
“Are you mad at me?”
“Never.”
She climbed onto my lap.
“I remembered something.”
“What?”
“The second car.”
I became still.
“You saw it?”
“Sometimes.”
“Who drove it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“He had a funny thing hanging from the mirror.”
“What thing?”
“A little silver airplane.”
My pulse changed.
I knew that ornament.
I had seen it for years.
My father gave identical silver airplane charms to five senior employees after Hale Industries completed its first aviation acquisition.
Richard had one.
So did Peter.
Three others remained.
I retrieved an old company photograph.
Five men stood beside my father.
Richard.
Peter.
My father’s attorney, Samuel Knox.
Operations director George Bell.
And my father’s closest friend.
William Cross.
“Do you recognize anyone?”
Lily studied it.
Then touched one face.
William Cross.
“Maybe him.”
William had attended my wedding.
Held Lily as a baby.
Spoken at my father’s funeral.
He was practically an uncle.
I called Marcus.
“Find Cross.”
Twenty minutes later, Marcus returned.
“He disappeared this morning.”
“Where?”
“We’re checking.”
My phone buzzed.
A message from Sarah.
I’M COMING HOME.
Then another.
DO NOT LET EVELYN SEE ME.
I looked toward the guest cottage.
“Why?”
Three dots appeared.
Then vanished.
Another message arrived.
BECAUSE MY MOTHER HAS BEEN LYING ABOUT VICTOR.
I typed:
ABOUT WHAT?
Sarah replied.
HE DIDN’T COME BACK SIX MONTHS AGO.
Then:
HE NEVER LEFT.
A noise came from behind me.
Evelyn stood in the doorway.
She had read the screen.
May you like
Her face collapsed.
And from somewhere inside the house, a man’s voice called her name.
